Respect leader quit over abuse after George Galloway comments

Salma Yaqoob tells Guardian many assumed she shared same sentiments as MP about allegations against Julian Assange

Former leader of Repect, Salma Yaqoob, says in her first interview since resigning that George Galloway's comments let down the women of Bradford. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Christopher Thomond/Guardian

Salma Yaqoob resigned as leader of the Respect party in part because of personal abuse she suffered after George Galloway's comment concerning Julian Assange, she has told the Guardian in her first interview since she left the party.

Galloway, who became Respect's sole MP when he was elected in March to represent Bradford West, said some of the allegations brought against Assange by two Swedish women did not constitute rape "as most people understand it". He was simply guilty of "bad sexual etiquette".

Yaqoob, a former councillor in Birmingham and a part-time psychotherapist, revealed that she was assumed to share Galloway's sentiments. "Under the guise of different names there were personal attacks," she said. Yaqoob said that she published a statement setting out her own position, but that the damage was done.

Galloway has not been in direct contact with Yaqoob since her resignation on 11 September but she said the MP's comments let down the women of Bradford, whose votes helped him gain the seat from Labour, particularly women from traditional backgrounds who had in the past been expected to vote the way their husbands or fathers or brothers voted.

"That's why it's been deeply disappointing, because I do feel that those women have been let down," she said. "[Comments like that] open the door to women being treated in a certain way; you are just dismissed, your views are not taken seriously and a certain reactionary attitude is encouraged rather than challenged."

Yaqoob also refused to quell rumours that her resignation had tipped the party over into crisis. Kate Hudson withdrew her candidacy as Respect's MP for Manchester Central a week before Yaqoob's resignation. There have been reports that since the former leader left, others have followed her. Accounts of crisis meetings being held in Bradford have appeared in the Pakistani press, as well as predictions of a mass exit of party members.

"Only time will tell," she said. "George has to deal with that in the way that he sees fit. And reflect on that."

Yaqoob did not deny the possibility that she will join another party. All three main parties have approached her. "It's no secret that people have made approaches," she said. "Right now, although I'm very flattered and honoured, I'm taking stock."

She also claimed that it was a "deep sadness" to Galloway that Labour had expelled him from the party. "George is also very keen to be in Labour, and this is the irony – he's always said to me if you have an approach [from Labour] just make sure that I can come back in," she said. "Ironically, that has not been on the cards. I think it's a great sadness to him, understandably, that he was expelled [for his vocal opposition to the Iraq war]."

Yaqoob also revealed that she has had death threats over her political stance. "I've had death threats that my children are haraam to me, that anyone who beheads me will go straight to heaven."